"Vision VII" by Hadwijch of Antwerp
One Pentecost at dawn I had a vision. Matins were being sung in the church and I was there. I was in such a state so passionate and so terribly unnerved that I thought I should not satisfy my Lover and my Lover not fully gratify me, then I would have to desire while dying and die while desiring. I desired to consummate my Lover completely and to confess and to savor to the fullest extent- to fulfill his humanity blissfully with mine and to experience mine therein, and to be strong and perfect so that I in turn would satisfy him perfectly: to be purely and exclusively and completely virtuous in every virtue. And to that end I wished inside me, that he would satisfy me with his Godhead in one spirit (1 Cor 6:17) and he be all he is without restraint. For above all gifts I could choose, I choose that I may give satisfaction in all great sufferings. For that is what it means to satisfy completely: to grow to being god with God. For it is suffering and pain, sorrow and being in great new grieving, and letting this all come and go without grief, and to taste nothing of it but sweet love and embraces and kisses. Thus I desired that God should be with me so that I should be fulfilled together with him.
Christ showed himself as a human being. He gave himself to me in the form of the sacrament. Then he gave me to drink from the chalice. Then he came to me himself and took me completely in his arms and pressed me to him. And all my limbs felt his limbs in the full satisfaction that my heart and my humanity desired. All to soon I lost external sight of the shape of him, and I saw him disappear into nothing, so quickly melting away and fusing together that I could not see or observe him outside of me, nor discern him within me. It was to me at that moment as if we were one without distinction. I remained in a state of oneness with my Beloved so that I melted into him and ceased to be myself.
Reference~ The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, Bernard McGinn
One Pentecost at dawn I had a vision. Matins were being sung in the church and I was there. I was in such a state so passionate and so terribly unnerved that I thought I should not satisfy my Lover and my Lover not fully gratify me, then I would have to desire while dying and die while desiring. I desired to consummate my Lover completely and to confess and to savor to the fullest extent- to fulfill his humanity blissfully with mine and to experience mine therein, and to be strong and perfect so that I in turn would satisfy him perfectly: to be purely and exclusively and completely virtuous in every virtue. And to that end I wished inside me, that he would satisfy me with his Godhead in one spirit (1 Cor 6:17) and he be all he is without restraint. For above all gifts I could choose, I choose that I may give satisfaction in all great sufferings. For that is what it means to satisfy completely: to grow to being god with God. For it is suffering and pain, sorrow and being in great new grieving, and letting this all come and go without grief, and to taste nothing of it but sweet love and embraces and kisses. Thus I desired that God should be with me so that I should be fulfilled together with him.
Christ showed himself as a human being. He gave himself to me in the form of the sacrament. Then he gave me to drink from the chalice. Then he came to me himself and took me completely in his arms and pressed me to him. And all my limbs felt his limbs in the full satisfaction that my heart and my humanity desired. All to soon I lost external sight of the shape of him, and I saw him disappear into nothing, so quickly melting away and fusing together that I could not see or observe him outside of me, nor discern him within me. It was to me at that moment as if we were one without distinction. I remained in a state of oneness with my Beloved so that I melted into him and ceased to be myself.
Reference~ The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, Bernard McGinn
